The St. Joseph’s College women’s basketball team earned an at-large bid in the 2014 United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Division I National Championships as the No. 7 seed in the eight-team tournament.

The Lady Bears (15-11) were slated to take on No. 2 Ave Maria University in the first round on Wednesday, March 5, at 1 p.m. on the campus of Penn State Fayette in Uniontown, Pa.

St. Joseph’s returns to the USCAA tournament for the first time since 2010, where they entered as the No. 9 seed. They also earned an NCAA tournament bid in 2012 – the first and only NCAA Tournament appearance in school history in any sport.

They will take on the Florida-based Gyrenes (20-10), an NAIA member out of The Sun Conference, who have won seven of their last eight games.

The victor will face the winner of the third-ranked Robert Morris University Springfield and number-six University of Maine Fort Kent in the semifinals.

Despite finishing as HVIAC champions with an 18-9 record, the men’s basketball team did not receive a second straight bid to the National Championships and end their season with the most wins since the 2006-07 season.